The European Week of Sport is an initiative set up in 2015 by the European Commission to encourage all Europeans to get up and be active. In 2017 34 000 events took place in 32 countries with around 12 million participants who embraced the opportunities to take part in sport and physical activity. Ahead of the 2018 edition, the European Commission decided to open a consultation in order to collect feedback from the general public as well as from non-governmental organisations, private stakeholders and public authorities.

Considering how much physical activity is key to enhance active and healthy ageing, AGE contributed to this consultation in order to highlight the need to get older persons on board in the activities developed during the European Week of Sport as well as all along the year.
The key issues that we pointed out include:

making sure that such initiatives reach out older persons whatever the setting they are living in: individual homes, social housing or residential care.

linking up with other areas which are key to support physical activity is also a way to involve as many people as possible: for instance the mobility week is providing opportunities to encourage people biking.

paying attention to the accessibility of sport activities is crucial for persons with disabilities and older persons, while it would also benefit all citizens.

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